Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The heads of Raptor's fans collectively exploded in unison during the first half

The heads of Raptor's fans collectively exploded in unison during the first half of this game as they went down by double digits to the worst team in the league, sports in general, and possibly in history. Luckily our Raptors took their heads from between their knees and put them back into the game. Buoyed by a strong game from Jarrett Jack who was under the weather, the Raptors managed to pull back into the lead and hang on down the stretch.

Jack provided the team with 40 minutes of on-floor leadership scoring 17 and dishing out 9 assists while playing the type of defense that was lacking in the game before which shall no longer be mentioned by name. Several other Raptors turned around their games tonight including the high energy, hustle and disruptive defense provided by one Amir Johnson. Amir was all over the floor disrupting the play on one end and running the lanes on the other end.

Sonny also turned it around this game, filling the lanes and grabbing the boards. He ended with an impressive double double, 14 points and 11 rebounds. A career night with a career high in points. I think they coaches should consider starting him over Turk but I know it will never happen. Still, it's nice to know we will have this kid who looks to be a steal of the summer.

Antoine bounced back from his big doughnut night with a strong performance on both ends. Eric Smith mentioned that Antoine blamed the new CB4 shoes he tried last night which were low-cut. Sounded like an excuse to be until I saw him play tonight. Maybe it was the shoes after all as he does a 180 and he was hitting his jumpers from beyond the arc. He contributed 18 points and 7 boards starting in place of Turk and provided the defense he was lacking.

The Killer Bees struggled shooting the ball but still managed to get 20 a piece. Bargnani did a better job on the defensive end tonight and seemed a bit more engaged. He stood his ground against a tough opponent in Brook Lopez and blocked him on several occasions. He changed a lot of shots, switched well, kept his man in front of him on switches, and finished with 4 blocks. Bosh didn't fair too well on the defensive end despite having a good game on the glass. Yi scored the ball way too easily and beat Bosh to the ball on several occasions. This may have been what prompted Triano to mention boxing Yi out during one of his discussions on a time-out. Btw this expression on AB7's face was the look I had on my face as I watched the game in the first.

It was a very ugly game to watch. It should have been a beautiful blowout for the Raptors. I love watching blowout games when my team is not on the losing end. I think I like them a lot more than close games. Maybe I am crazy but whatever. In the end however, the result justifies the means and the result was a win. That's all that really matters. Or should I say, the non-loss justifies it since a loss tonight would have greatly outweighed this win.

On another note, these past few games should have provided the Brain Trust ample chance to scout the players from these bad teams in order to sneak a few of their decent players out. We all know Bryan is a lego master and likes to wheel and deal so I wouldn't be surprised to see him swinging a deal with some of these recent jerk teams especially after seeing the other Brian from across the hall make 2 huge moves on the weekend. It's like poking the bear with a stick. Sooner or later the bears gonna start sniffing around and pounce on the first idiot team it sees.